Drowsy driver who killed three won’t face felony

Raymond LegendreStaff Writer

Wednesday

Oct 22, 2008 at 3:00 PMOct 22, 2008 at 4:52 PM

An 18-year-old Larose woman who allegedly fell asleep at the wheel prior to a crash that killed a mother and her two children will not be charged with a felony in connection with the wreck, the Lafourche Parish District Attorney said.

THIBODAUX — An 18-year-old Larose woman who allegedly fell asleep at the wheel prior to a crash that killed a mother and her two children will not be charged with a felony in connection with the wreck, the Lafourche Parish District Attorney said, drawing expressions of outrage from the victims’ relatives.Binh Pham, now 19, will be charged with the misdemeanor offense of driving left of center, District Attorney Cam Morvant II said.Pham told State Police she fell asleep the night of May 11 moments before the 2004 Honda Odyssey minivan she drove crossed the centerline and crashed into a 2001 Ford Focus driven by 32-year-old Dawn Graham on La. 308 near the T-Bois Bridge in Larose, killing Graham and her two youngest children, Stacie, 10, and Bryan Jr., 8. The Graham family’s oldest child, 13-year-old Audrey, survived the crash, but her face has been left scarred.Pham had been up late the previous night studying for finals at LSU, her sister has said.She had taken a nap prior to her parents’ arrival, Morvant said, citing information in the State Police report detailing the case. From there, she drove them from Baton Rouge to Larose, coming within miles of reaching her destination. Phone calls made to the home of Pham’s family in Larose Tuesday were neither answered nor returned.The children’s father, Bryan Graham Sr., vowed to call the state Attorney General’s Office to find out whether anything further could be done to revive the case, labeling Morvant’s plans to prosecute a traffic offense a “slap on the wrist.” Bryan Graham said Pham did more than cross a yellow line.“She killed three people,” he said. “There’s a huge difference.”Glenn Rousse, grandfather of the dead children and father of their mother, agreed.“The D.A., the justice system, as far as I’m concerned has let me down big time,” Rousse said.Morvant said he knew the victims’ family would be critical of his decision, but he maintains his duty is to follow the law, not public sentiment.Pham broke the law, in his eyes, when she crossed the centerline and that’s what she’s charged with.Pham is scheduled to enter her plea Nov. 26 in Judge Walt Lanier III’s courtroom. If she pleads guilty or is convicted of the charge, she would likely pay a fine, an amount determined by the judge. She would not face jail time.Pham’s actions did not meet the state’s standards for negligent homicide, which require “total wanton disregard for the general public,” Morvant said, noting her toxicology tests came back clean from the State Police Crime Lab in Baton Rouge. Negligent homicide, an option favored by the family, is punishable by up to five years in jail.Morvant said he went to great lengths to ensure he made the right decision, conferring with district attorneys in three parishes, members of his staff and State Police on multiple occasions.“Ultimately, I made the final call,” Morvant said. “I don’t care how many people I spoke to.”“I can see their point of view, I sure can, that their daughter and grandchildren were killed,” Morvant said of the bereaved family’s distress. “I view a slap on the wrist to be when someone committed a crime and is guilty of that crime and walks away scot free. This particular case did not rise to felony negligent homicide.”Rousse criticized Morvant for his decision and the failure to keep him abreast of the case’s developments. He also lambasted Morvant personally for making comments that indicate the reason for not prosecuting the case as a felony is because of its perceived difficulty to return a conviction.“What he’s doing is opening a Pandora’s Box,” Rousse said, referring to Morvant. “He’s telling people you can kill as many people as you want, and as long as you don’t have no drugs or alcohol in your system and you fall asleep at the wheel, you’ll go free.”Darrel Drobnich, chief program officer with drowsydriving.org, an advocacy group based in Washington said driving with a lack of sleep is akin to driving drunk, only there is not the same social stigma attached. According to the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep in America poll in 2005, 60 percent of adults said they had driven drowsy, while 37 percent said they had fallen asleep at the wheel in the last year.

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